Learning Code

I am currently taking CSE 114: Introduction to Java. I really like this class and it actually made me realized a whole new world out there. Of course it is a very hard topic to learn but I feel as if there is nothing stopping me, like there is nothing stopping me. I can imagine myself in the future, just coding everything. Too lazy to get that coffee? Just code a robot to bring you coffee everyday. Find it annoying to wait for the laptop to open? Just program it so that the laptop is open and chrome is open even before you sit down. I actually didn't think that far. But as I was writing a paper for another class, I thought about writing a few lines of code so that whenever I open up MicroSoft Word, it will automatically have a heading on it. Yea, I'm a pretty lazy person but it's the little things that are the most annoying. That's why the diswasher was created, cause it was made for people like me who are too lazy to wash their own dishes, so they  have a robot do it for them.

Hearing With Your Eyes: McGurk Effect

The things that we hear are a combination of what we see and what we hear. This is called the McGurl Effect. In the video, she was pronoucing a nonsense word. When we close our eyes, we can hear baba, but when we open our eyes, we heard gaga. However, if you mute it, and just watch as she pronouces the nonsense word, it a whole new word. This is because when we hear (with our eyes open), we see and hear something and then our brains put them together to make a combination of it. Like what Dr. Khul said in the video, in order to make "machines behave like people, we have to get them to take in the same information in as we do." After watching this video, I thought "wow, now making humanlike robots is so much harder than I already thought." I never knew that such an effect actually happens, now we can add this to a long list of things we have to figure out in order to make a human robot.

Source:https://youtu.be/tUf0672xAOU

Anonymous Apps

Anonymous apps, such as the Whisper and YikYak, are becoming more and more popular these days. These apps allows the user to post whatever they like anonymously. I think that it is a really good idea because it allows you to take off that imaginary mask that we all wear in front of people adn just be oursleves. Or sometimes you just have something that you need to tell  but you can't. For example, people who are sucidial might not want to tell their parents or friends that they are having a hard time. So instead of keeping it in, they can post it on these apps and no one will know who it is. Then people who sympathize with that person and wants to help them, can send supporting and helpful comments to their post. The idea is great but in the end, it wasn't used the way we would like it to. Just like in every online comment section, there will be trolls, who just want to make people mad. I remembered there was this one yak, on YokYak, where someone posted the type of girls that he didn't like. But because of the way he worded it, it sounded like he was fat-shaming people. And this lead to up an huge argument and a lot of downvotes. This could make some people upset because they didn't get the escape from reality that they wanted from this app. Also since YikYak, has a location system, the people that can see your yak are the people in the area near you. There was this one case where a girl got bullied through YikYak because the bullies were able to post nasty comments about her and know that they won't get caught since it was all anonymous. However, since that girl was from a small town, it was very easy to figure out who the bullies were talking about. In the end, the CEO promised her that he will do something about it, but later upgrades YikYak so that one can post pictures anonymously. How do you think that girl will feel now? She is probably more depressed since now her bullies can post pictures of her and no one can do anything about it since it's all anonymous. I feel that YikYak is a good idea but it's being used for in the wrong reasons.

No Electronics Day

No electronics day is a challenge to not use any electronics for 24 hours. Driving is fine but no phones, laptops, tv, etc. I thought that it would be a fun challenge to try because I think that we all spend too much time on our phones and such that we don't really pay attention to the things around us. Back in Brooklyn, I used to think that my phone was a part of my life; I can't (well I could but I wouldn't want to) survive without my phone. I need to check when the bus is coming, when the train is coming, or if I'm meeting someone, where the hell are they at, why are they so late, etc. But after coming  and living on campus, I feel that life is a lot slower here; I don't feel so rushed all the time (just during midterms and finals). And I don't use my phone as often anymore. In fact, I realized that my student ID is starting to feel equally as important if not more important than my phone. Anyways, I decided to choose a good day where there was no paper due (so I don't need my laptop), and there was no homework due on Blackboard, to take this challenge. In the beginning, I felt as if a part of me wasn't there (because I left my phone in my room for the day), and this kind of made me feel out of place and I was always somewhat anxious that something was going to happen. But by noon, I started to relax and I noticed my surroundings more.  Walking around the campus without my phone made me feel a lot calmer. Some parts of the campus feels like a garden; like that area near the physics building. That was something I wouldn't have noticed because I would just be on my phone, texting my friends or doing anything else but looking up. Cellphones and laptops are great but sometimes we should close that screen and look around. Oh yea, there was a downside to this day. I was suppose to meet up with some of my friends but I was worried that I would be late so I came early. However no one was there even after our arranged time. I didn't have a phone to text them where they are. But I guess, not having a phone forces me to just trust in my friends. And even if I did have my phone with me, they can't arrive any earlier than they did (or did not do), and by texting them and reading their excuses will probably make me more upset. So I think it's easier to just wait and trust them (unless they ditched you, then go yell at them).

New Ideas for Phones

Last week, the class talked about something called a LifePack. We then went around brainstorming about new products that we can create. It got to the idea of making a solar powered powerbank that we can carry around to charge our smartphones. It later occurred to that we can just install the solar plates onto the back of smartphones. Other that the camera, the back doesn't really have anything else on it, so we can make use of that space and put a solar plate onto it. It will probably be slightly heavier, but I know that with time, scientist will figure out a way to make it 0.2 grams lighter can say that the new iPhone22 is lighter than the iPhone21. And it will eventually make to so light that it will become the same weight as the ones today.

The wallet cases are very popular these days because it places all your important cards, such as metrocards, credit cards, and ID near your phone. Another good idea can be to create a phone that also stores your cards in there too. Since there are many apps that now stores your credit and debit cards for you (Android pay for instance), you just need a small compartment for your ID, Since the back of iPhones and Samsung are unused, they can make a small section for your ID. In fact, why not just out the two ideas together and make a new smartphone that has an little compartment in the back and it is solar powered.

The Internet of Things

It is estimated by 2020, each person will have 6 to 7 things that is connected to the internet. In the video, it showed a future house, where the items in the house that is connected to the internet will know what you want even before you know what you want. For example, the music player installed in your house will know that you're tired because you had a long day through the calender on your phone and will play soft music instead of hard music. Or there is an outdoor sensor that realizes that it snowed out so it turns on the heat as you step in the house. Even the fridge be something that is connected to the internet. It will tell you what you have in your fridge and what you can make out of it by what you're in the mood for, if you're tired, and if your phone has a diet app on it.
I really want a house like that in the future. It will be amazing, I'll probably be excited go to home everyday because my house will turn on the heater or the air conditioner during a cold or hot day, and I can just relax. But it's also a little scary at the same time, because we come to depend on all of these things. I feel that if a disaster happens and none of these internet of things work anymore, I won't know how to survive. I'll be one of those people that complains when the wifi goes down and feel like the world is about to end. So even though I want my future house to be like this, I also am afraid because it feels like we are going too fast and something will happen that will cause everything to break.

Source:https://youtu.be/LVlT4sX6uVs?list=PLcuqCOJCLvds1fo9IWyu61uAlT8xf4Fwh

"4D Printing"

4D printing is when you print something and then it completely transforms into something else. Many of us have seen 4D printing before. For example, making a cube from a paper cutout. In the beginning, it was a paper that looked like a T, but then it completely transform into a cube when its folded. In the ted talk, Tibits talked about how the current way of building infrastructure is time comsuming, and wastes materails, energy, and physical human power. Whenever something happens such as change in demands or a natural disaster, the entire infrastucture, lets say for a water system, must be dug up and all the pipes must be rebuilt and put back down. What do we do with the old pipes? Well, we don't need it anymore so it become waste. Instead of building infrastructure that way, what if we create a pipe that changes based on demands. It enlarges (pipe on the right) for increase in demands and shrinks (second picture) when demand deceases.
I think that it is a good idea and we should incorporate that into our future. The pipes especially can be very useful because we no longer have to waste materials whenever demand changes and it is not even that hard to do.

Source:https://youtu.be/0gMCZFHv9v8
https://youtu.be/ow5TgVTTUdY

JuneOven

I think that this oven is innovative and can be very useful. The MarketFresh at Roth should use it. The JuneOven "cooks like a chef". It is able to recognize most foods and it will tell you the temperature of the food, not just how hot the oven itself is. There is also an LED light above it so that you can take pictures and videos of the food that you are cooking for you social media accounts aka Instagram. One of the best part is that you can tell the oven how you want your food to be cooked. Whenever I go to Market Fresh and I ask for a medium steak, they'll give me either a rare steak or a burnt one. They need JuneOven. Well actually I don't know how well the oven will actually work but it's better than getting raw steak. JuneOven also has an app that will tell you when the food is ready and the progress of the food, this way you can step away from the kitchen and relax a little in front of the TV while it cooks. I don't know about anyone else but I was taught to always stay in the kitchen while something is cooking in case something happens. I have almost burned down the house a couple of times when I'm cooking something and I went back into my room then I forgot about it. I think that its dangerous and we should just stay near the kitchen. But other than that, I think that this product is pretty good idea.

Source:https://juneoven.com/

Google AdSense

For those who write blogs, you should use Google AdSense. You can write what you would usually write about and share your ideas. Then on the side of it, there will be an ad about something that is similar to what you are talking about. So lets say that I am talking about breifcases, the ad that is next to my blog will be about briefcases. The best part is the company that created that ad will pay you for putting it up on your blog. This way you can share your ideas while making money.

I thought that this was a good idea because there are people out there that loves to blog and it is a great way to make money. It's like how YouTube is paying their youtubers. However, youtubers are paid by how many people sees the ad, and the ad sometimes have nothing to do with it. So it doesn't really appeal to that group of people. However, for AdSense, if your talking about baking, and people that are interested in baking will read your blog and then the baking company will be able to advertise to the right target group.

Source:https://www.google.com/adsense/start/#?modal_active=none

Top Hacker Shows us How It's Done

In this Ted Talk, Holman shows us what a hacker does when they get bored. In the beginning of the show, he said that his hotel room was boring to a normal person but to a hacker, they would notice that the tv is a little different from the ones they have at home. So they would play around with it and realize that they could see what people in the other rooms are seeing. Then he realized that he can change what they are watching, so it became a hilarious prank to switch what other hotel guest's tv channels. What I found hilarious is that he created a robot that looks like a hoberboard with a iPad on top of it and it would go around the hotel looking for people with an internet connection. The robot was roll towards the person and then show them their username and password. Imagine how shocked that person would be. Another was when there was this hacker called Sammy who made a code so that anyone that sees his social media account automatically becomes his friend and their page would say "Sammy is my hero". I thought that this was funny becauase just imagine everyone's faces when they log back into their account and found that their page has been changed to "Sammy is my hero". I mean that person might be confused and slightly freaked out but it's still a funny prank.

Source:https://youtu.be/hqKafI7Amd8

Hackers: The Internet's Immune System

For most of us, when we think of hacker, we think of cyber criminals. But hackers my actually be the ones protecting the internet. "Sometimes, you have to demo a threat to spark a solution" is said by Jack Barnably, the person who figured out how to make ATMs throw money at him. Hackers are the ones who can easily find the little things that can break and force us to fix it.
For example, there was one hacker who realized that he was able to hack into wireless wifi routers and print out all the data from it online. He thought that this was a problem and notified the company about it. However, the company didn't do anything, thinking that it was just how things were done with routers. So two months later, a couple of hackers hacked into another wireless router but they didn't steal anyone; in fact, they left a note warning the user that they were vulnerable and their information can be accessed by anyone with an internet connection. They even gave to list of people who are also vulnerable. They were nice enough to even leave a URL to a news article telling them how to better protect themselves. In a way, hackers are like Robin Hood, they are superheros with a bad name (and also does illegal acts).

Source:https://youtu.be/erCAp_Bd0AQ

Li-Fi Internet

The wi-fi is a big part of our daily lives, however, we sometimes get a little frustrated with it. There are days when I sometimes give a little prayer while I'm waiting for a video to buffer : "Come on WolfieNet, don't fail me!!" (Especially on Saturdays when I only have 10 seconds left to hand in my homework through Blackboard.) Wifi can easily be shared with someone else in another room because it uses radio waves to transmit information. To make wifi better, it needs something of a higher frequency: light. Light is about 100 times faster than radiowaves. We can download 18 1.6GB movies in one second!! Now I don't have to wait hours for that game to download!
Harald Haas, the creator of Li-Fi demostrated on a TedTalk how Li-Fi works. I thought that it was really cool, especially when he put a hand over the reciever to block the light and the video in the back stopped playing because the reciever wasn't able to read any data. By putting his hand away, the reciever was able to read the data and the video continued to play. The bad part of this is that in order for it to work, the light must be on. But with a LED light, we can alter the intensity of the light so that we can dim it so much that the human eye can't detect it but the reciever is able to read it. The best part is that we don't need power in order to have internet, as soon as we turn on the lights, we are able to get li-fi.

Source:https://youtu.be/wqH9KX9o0vg

Edible Spoons

I recently saw a video on edible spoons. I thought that it was an amazing idea since they explained that we use and thow away a huge amount of plastic spoons. By making edible spoons, we are able to make less waste and use what we have more efficiently. The representative on that video said that it only cost 4 dollars per 100 spoons; I think that it is pretty cheap but obviously not as cheap as plastic ones. However, they can make it just as cheap by taking in larger orders then they could go directly to the farmers and for their ingredients, making the price drop. If we can make this a thing, I believe that we are can an impact by making less waste. Currently, the Edible Spoons by Jack have 15 different flavors and 5 of them are sweet. Some of these flavors are cranberry, chocolate, gingerbread, lemon, plain, etc.

Apple vs. FBI

The FBI was about to force Apple to hack into one of San Bernandino shooter's iPhone when an unidentified person gave the FBI the code to hack it. Because of this person, the FBI dropped their case against Apple, however, this time around Apple wants something from the FBI. Apple's laywers are trying to figure out a way to force the FBI to give them that code. I think that this is very important to Apple because Apple is known for their security system and to know that there is a method out there that can defeat will ruin their reputation. On the other hand, I also understand why the FBI doesn't want to give Apple the method. The FBI collects several methods to hack into other company's product in case during times like this and they need to hack into someone'e iPhone; they keep these codes without telling those companies.  What Apple is worried about is that since the general public now knows that there is a way to hack into iPhones, more and more people are going to try to hack it, and this will jeopardize their product. They want to get the hacking code so that they can improve on their iPhones and make their security system better. Even though the FBI is unwilling to give Apple the code, Apple said that they will be able to get the code eventually. One of the reason for this is the unidentified person that gave the code to the FBI might sell it to others, and it will eventually land on Apple's lap. Another reason is since the world now knows that the FBI has the hacking code, local and state authories are asking the FBI to give them the code in order to catch criminals or to collect evidence to put them in jail. With enough pressure, the FBI might have to give in. I understand why the FBI wouldn't want to give the code away if they give the code away, it is almost a sure thing that Apple will fix their security system, and what happens if the FBI needs to hack another iPhone? They already know that Apple isn't willing to give the FBI the code. But I also understand why Apple needs the code, they spent millions of dollars to secure the content in their products and their entire company might go down if there is something wrong with their product.

Source:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/apple-engineers-fbis-iphone-hack-will-leak-and-apple-will-plug-the-hole_us_570108b6e4b083f5c607ed4f

Computers will grow your food in the future

The Caleb Harper from TedTalk introduced his idea with an apple. How long was an apple picked beforeit finds itself on a self in a grocery store. The answer was, on average in the U.S., 11 months. ELEVEN MONTHS!!! That is a lot of time. I don't know how about anyone else but I can't keep food in my fridge for more than 2 weeks before signs of mold shows up around my food. So how is it that these apples are able to survive for 11 months and still look fresh when they're placed on the self? The apples are put into a cold storage and then gassed. The bad part about this is that the gas is toxic. There are evidence that employeees sometimes tries to take some of the apples from the cold storage and dying. How is it that we never knew about this before? Also most of the antioxidants are gone by the time it reaches us; "it is basically a little ball of sugar" (Harper).

The was very confusing at first because Harper was bombarding us with a lot of information. But from what I got out of it, his team was making green vegetables grow in a controlled lab by controlling the environment in that lab. Basically, he was coding the environment. Obviously, many of the plants died in the beginning so they put sensors in the to determine such things like humidity, pH, and calcuim level  to see why the plants are dying. By the end, they were able to use computers to talk to the plants: when the plant is ripe, if the plant needs more water, the sun is too bright. The best part was that they were able to grow plants that is super rare.

Harper is now trying to teach others how to grow plants using a game that shows a virtual farm lab. The virtual lab teaches people why the plant needs or doesn't need carbon dioxide by letting them change the percentage of CO2 in the virtual lab, this way the user came see right away if the plant dies. And if the plant survives, they just created a new recipe or a new unqiue ratio for this plant. I think that this is a great idea because it teaches people about farming and what is needed for plants to survive. In the past and even now, people don't want to be farmers because it is hard labor. But now electrical enginners are able to grow plants! In the future, we don't have to eat a sphere of sugar that is called an apple, instead we can actually eat fresh apples that we created ourselves and made for one person's tastebudds.

Source:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEx6K4P4GJc